By Carrie Budoff Brown
Politico.com
ST. LOUIS, MO – Casting the tax debate as a “values” issue Saturday, Barack Obama said John McCain was “out-of-touch” for equating the Illinois senator’s plan to cut taxes for middle class families with welfare.
“It comes down to values – in America, do we simply value wealth, or do we value the work that creates it?” Obama said at a rally under the Gateway Arch. “I’m not giving tax cuts to folks who don’t work. I’m giving tax cuts to folks who do work. That’s right, Missouri – John McCain is so out of touch with the struggles you are facing that he must be the first politician in history to call a tax cut for working people ‘welfare.’”
Obama made the remarks at a rally that drew an estimated 100,000 people—second only to the 200,000 people who turned out for his speech in Berlin, Germany, and more than the 80,000 people who attended his Democratic National Convention speech—in a state that John F. Kerry had pulled out of at this point four years ago.
McCain, meanwhile, delivered some of his sharpest rhetoric to date Saturday in a paid weekly radio address, and also at rallies in North Carolina and Virginia, two traditionally Republican states that have been trending Democratic in recent polls. He drew crowds of several thousand.
The Arizona senator, who on Friday described Obama’s proposed tax cuts as “welfare,” Saturday accused his rival of favoring a socialist economic approach that would spread wealth to individuals who do not pay income taxes.
“At least in Europe, the Socialist leaders who so admire my opponent are upfront about their objectives,” McCain said in his Saturday radio address. “They use real numbers and honest language. And we should demand equal candor from Sen. Obama. Raising taxes on some in order to give checks to others is not a tax cut; it’s just another government giveaway.”
Obama would “convert the IRS into a giant welfare agency, redistributing massive amounts of wealth at the direction of politicians in Washington,” McCain said.
The back-and-forth marked a continuation of the disagreement that dominated Wednesday’s presidential debate – and elevated Joe Wurzelbacher, an Ohio plumber, to a household name by eliciting the statement from Obama that has formed the foundation of McCain’s criticism. Walking through Wurzelbacher’s neighborhood last weekend, Obama said money generated by raising taxes on families that make more than $250,000 would be returned to the middle class.
“I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody,” Obama said to Wurzelbacher, who McCain has repeatedly referenced as “Joe the plumber.”
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), speaking with reporters after the rally here, defended the Democratic presidential nominee.
“First of all, it wasn’t the best way of putting it,” McCaskill said of Obama’s comment about spreading wealth. “But what he was talking about was instead of doing the tax cut for the thinnest sliver at the top, which is the only thing Republicans ever want to do, he wants to make the tax cuts go to the majority of Americans. He is not talking about spreading around wealth. He is talking about making sure most Americans get a tax cut.”
Obama has argued that his plan – which is based on who pays payroll taxes, not income taxes – would trim the tax burden for 95 percent of working Americans, while increasing them for families that earn more than $250,000 a year. McCain says that since 40 percent of Americans don’t pay income taxes, the only way to cut their taxes is to provide tax credits.
But the nonpartisan website, Factcheck.org, pointed out that McCain’s health care plan, which would offer credits of up to $2,500 annually to individuals or $5,000 for families, relies on a similar philosophy as Obama’s middle class tax cut proposal.
“McCain makes his tax credit refundable to make it worth just as much to low-income workers as to high-income workers,” director Brooks Jackson wrote on FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. “If it were not refundable, it would be worth $0 to anyone who makes too little to pay any federal income taxes. A non-refundable credit would be worth the full amount only to individuals who owe at least $2,500 in federal income taxes, or couples who owe at least $5,000. Obama makes his tax credits refundable for the same reason – so they will benefit workers who earn too little to pay federal income tax.”
(This report includes information from the Associated Press.)